Editor’s Choice: 25 – 31 May

Three shows on this week’s lineup, all very different! From a hard-hitting monologue against the glorification of war, to a series of sketches based on a 17th century aristocracy code of conduct, there is certainly something to cater to all tastes. All shows listed below are still running this coming week.

Spokesong is a play about a cycling shop. It is also a funny, profound and insightful look at eighty years of Irish history. Although these two facts might seem incongruous, this production at the Finborough earned a whopping five stars last week. It was so enjoyable that our reviewer ran out of synonyms for ‘brilliant’. And it is running for another two weeks, so don’t miss out!

The Manual Oracle is something entirely different to Spokesong. It is effectively a series of sketches inspired by the Oráculo manual y arte de prudencia, a sort of seventeenth century code of conduct for members of the Spanish court. Some are comic, some sad, some abstract, and some completely bizarre. In any case, they are all well-executed, and thought-provoking.

Finally, Johnny Got His Gun is a drama past on a pacifist novel. As the world marks the centenary of the start of WWI, Johnny Got His Gun makes the case that there is no glory in war, and that no cause is worthy of the sacrifice of human life. With a magnificent performance by Jack Holden, this production is hard-hitting but riveting.

About Louie Corpe

Louie is the co-founder and joint managing editor of Everything Theatre. He met James at university, and this event definitively changed his life for the worst. These days he a Ph.D. student in particle physics working on the Higgs boson's decay to two photons (seriously). He claims that theatre is his only release from an existence of signal-to-background ratios, selection efficiency and C++ programming. His particular preference is for well-executed site-specific productions and anything by Tom Stoppard. He has been widely misquoted as saying he "hates musicals". This is not true. He simply has not yet come across a musical he hasn't disliked.